These Verses, as with the last two I have written about, were suggested for study by a friend, and, I have to say, he’s doing a fantastic job of selecting them.
1 Corinthians is my most read and most loved book of the Bible. It has also been the book which I have found to be the most challenging.
This epistle is attributed to Paul beyond any reasonable doubt. There is some debate whether 1 Corinthians 14:34–35 is original or a later addition. (ref 1) - However, thankfully, the passages we have here are without authorship contestation.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?
17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
1 Corinthians 6:19
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
(NIV)
My pre-Commentary thoughts.
As usual, the below was my raw reading, no commentary consultation, just a lot of thinking.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 - Saying that we are God’s temple feels like it can be supported without objection by the indwelling of the Spirit. Before the Spirit was within us, he was in the temple. This is a diligently, delightfully self-supporting verse.
The next says that destroying the temple will result in God destroying the person. Is this speaking about abusing one’s own body, through injury, immorality, physical sin, or is this a direct remark about despair (and suicide?) Sin often damages the body, but it does not destroy it. Is encouraging someone to leave the faith also destruction of the temple, I wonder? Does losing one’s faith result in the exiting of the Holy Spirit?
Another way this could be interpreted is to focus on the word ‘together.’ Together, we are the temple. Perhaps more likely, now I think about it, that it is speaking about the church, as in, a group of believers. Perhaps, like so much scripture, it’s speaking about both these things. (Because The Word is usually smarter than all of us. ☺️)
1 Corinthians 6:19 - Here we have another verse which reminds us that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. I have always enjoyed that we are owned by God. I know to whom I belong, spiritually speaking. The Spirit being inside me is comforting. He keeps me safe. He wards off lesser spirits (which is literally all of them.) and he is the guiding force within me, which I think accounts for my desire to do better in life. I am, after all, not my own. — I find this very reassuring.
I notice though that the word Temple here is never plural; we, collectively, are the (singular) temple. We are not all temples. I’m not sure about the implications of that, but it certainly makes me feel connected to other believers.
Striking word
The word ‘temple’ here simply cannot be ignored.
Original Word: ναός (nah-os’)
Meaning: From a primary word ναίω naiō (to dwell); a fane, shrine, temple: - shrine, temple.
Total uses: 46
Translated as: Temple (43 times) - Temples (2 times) - Shrines (1 time)
Source: (ref 2) Strong’s
The word temple actually means ‘indwelling’ and we are in dwelt by the Holy Spirit. We, believers, are literally temples. Wow. This wasn’t a ‘close enough’ usage. The writers of the New Testament literally mean that we are temples. That somehow makes sin far worse, now I think about it.
Sermon Bible
Within my application, eSword, there is a commentary which is simply called ‘Sermon Bible Commentary,’ I’ve had some difficulty finding the actual source material for reference (Ref 3) but it provided some good information and phrasings I found useful.
The commentary points out that it is this entrance of the Holy Spirit which accounts for the born again nature of the believer. Without its entrance, we could not claim to be a new creation. It describes the attunement which takes place as turning away from a tendency for evil, towards a tendency for good. Overall, I think the point is that when the Spirit is within you, you are more prone to act in line with God’s will, not bound to, but inclined to, overall. _(Attibuted to H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2067.) _
The Sermon Bible has other comments from different writers who all make similar points, leading me to believe that I have properly understood the core of this verse.
Chuck Smith (C-2000) (ref 4)
As I have come to expect, Chuck does an outstanding job of summarising the ‘common’ wisdom around these passages, which align with the above. However, Chuck also points out that there is a linguistic and possibly spiritual parallel here between the believer as a temple vs Satan taking Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple when he was tempted. He also says that here is an external and internal word for temple in the original language, and when Jesus spoke about rebuilding it in three days, it was this internal temple meaning he was using. I am not a linguist, but I think Chuck is a pretty good source for this claim.
He also says that as the Holy Spirit is within us, so is Jesus, and when we go somewhere, or commit a sin, we are in some way taking Jesus with us when we do. The implications of that will take me some time to unpack, I think. Maybe I’ll follow that up with a musing when I have it fully, theologically noodled out. What are the implications of taking Jesus along for your sin?
It is also commented on, that we should eat right and look after our physical form, as we have been trusted to look after temples, we need to do a good job and look after our bodies. Something I have often failed at (though, I am trying my best in recent months.)
Final thoughts.
Wow, three scripture posts in a row, which all, essentially escalate the same point. I feel like I am at the end of this thread right now. I need to be a better custodian of my temple, for sure. I also must remember the third person of The Trinity. The Spirit is doing a lot, day-to-day in my life, and often we put all our focus on the Father and the Son, forgetting the helper, who is with is inside us, in the most direct way possible.
Something to think about, for sure. I’ll do my best to internalise these teachings.
References
- Barclay, John (2001). “65. I Corinthians”. In John Barton; John Muddiman (eds.). The Oxford Bible Commentary. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 1130. ISBN 978-0-19-875500-5 (https://archive.org/details/oxfordbiblecomme0000unse/page/n9/mode/2up(https://archive.org/details/oxfordbiblecomme0000unse/page/n9/mode/2up))
- Strongs Concordance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong%27s_Concordance
- eSword Library https://www.e-sword.net/contents.html referenced source was H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2067. Available online https://biblehub.com/commentaries/sermon/1_corinthians/3.htm
- Chuck Smith’s C2000 bible commentary series. Available in original Audio, for free.
This post was written and researched without the use of AI (unless you could a spell checker)